GIAMATTI MAKES PITCH FOR ROSE'S FORMER FRIEND

A. Bartlett Giamatti has asked a federal judge to consider Ronald Peters' cooperation in the Pete Rose investigation when Peters is sentenced on cocaine trafficking and tax evasion charges, according to a published report.

The Dayton Daily News reported in its Sunday editions that the baseball commissioner sent the letter to U.S. District Judge Carl Rubin. The newspaper said it had been told by unidentified sources that the letter was disclosed Friday in a pre-sentence conference in Rubin's chambers in Cincinnati.A federal prosecutor and Peters' lawyer, Alan J. Statman of Franklin, Ohio, also were at the meeting, the newspaper reported.

According to the newspaper, Statman said Saturday he would not comment on the letter "until it becomes a public record."